By Dannah Gresh, founder of True Girl
Read: Proverbs 31:10-31
“She is clothed with strength and dignity and laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25)
Today I am putting one of my children on an airplane and I won't see her for six months. (Gulp.) Autumn is headed to Taiwan for a discipleship training and missions program, and my mother's heart goes with her but my eyes and my mind and my hands are staying behind. And I feel rather helpless.
It is not the first time I have released one into the world. The first time was when Robby went to kindergarten. (I cried then, too.)
I'm fairly convinced that there is an invisible maternal doppler radar system on the top of a mother's head. The detection wand circles our heads with a certainty that each child is where he or she should be according to the schedule we've reviewed over and over again...until the doppler system has nothing to go on and cannot find said children. Then, the detection circle beeps hazardously warning our spirit that no report on that child's EXACT whereabouts can be provided. I don't know about you, but it is then that I feel helpless. (Read: out of control.)
And, frankly, fellow mother...sometimes I act like it. My responses are not full of God's strength. (If they were, I would not have stress attacks, dump all my fears via texts on my husband, and be verbally severe in my conversation with Autumn as we go over her packing list.) Hmmmm...I've got so much growing up to do!
I started this devotion with the intention to help you pray over your child's future. (And we will.) With Autumn departing, my heart is focused like a laser beam on how these next six months will shape her future—much like yours might be as you send one off to kindergarten, get another started in the AWANA program, or decide whether to put one on the traveling soccer team. Each decision we make for our children now hints at what they will become and gives us pause to pray.
We must be mothers who pray about our children's future. But in my spirit, I'm being led to caution you that it is our attitude about their future, not just their future that God wants us to pray over today.
Our children are going to grow up. Step by step. Day by day. Year by year. With each passing phase, they will be less and less traceable as they march into the future. (I know that there are days where a bubble bath is much in order because they are far TOO traceable...as in always under your feet...but with the beginning of the school year we can ponder those releasings, too.) And we are called to a certain response in the letting go... Proverbs 31:25.
Laughing.
There should be more of it in my house at these crucial "letting go" times. If I'm truly clothed in his strength and dignity, stress will not spit out of my mouth nearly as quickly as laughter will roll out of it. When I walk my children to the bus in the morning...time to laugh and play not just rush. When I drive them home from piano...time to giggle about the songs their learning not just establish their practice schedule. When I send them off to high school...time to laugh about new friends not just warn them about bad ones. When I drive Autumn to the airport at 5:30 am this morning, time to laugh about the future...not just stress over it by running through instructions for getting through Chicago O'Hare ONE MORE TIME!
How about you, mom? Does the amount of laughter over life changes, schedules, decisions, and the letting go reflect that your heart is fueled by God's strength and you are clothed in dignity? Let's laugh at the future a little today, shall we?
After all, when we're in over our head it is still under his feet!
Prayer For Our Children Based On Proverbs 31:25:
Lord, I want to confess to you that I am often reactive and express more stress than strength. If I truly believe that you are in control of my children's future, my life will display that I'm clothed in your strength and dignity. I give the future of (insert names of your children) to you. I ask you to help me put on the garment of your strength and the beauty of dignity. Fill my home with laughter, not just when times are easy but when I'm considering the future and can become prone to worry. Help me to remember that anything over my head is still under your feet. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
